Poetry/Poetics Call For Papers

Call for Papers for a University at Buffalo English Department Poetics Program conference. This conference will be preceded by a Friday April 8 Robert Creeley Lecture. This is the inaugural lecture in what will become an annual lectureship in poetry and poetics, and in 2016 will include a community celebration and presenters on Creeley’s translation into and reception by the French. More information about these events (free and open to the public) will be forthcoming at a later date. Please feel free to circulate the Call for Papers.

The Poetics Program at the University at Buffalo invites the submission of papers or workshop topics for a conference marking its 25th anniversary and looking toward the future of the field. “Poetics: (The Next) 25 Years” convenes an occasion for intensive reflection on the possibilities and agencies poetry and poetics bring to bear on trajectories of the now and histories-to-be. We envision a conference that consists primarily of discussion: papers will be short (10-12 minutes); there will be no plenary speakers and no introductions. Seminar workshops will enable intensive conversation on particular topics in small groups. Panel presentations will propose material and ideas for continuing discussion with all participants.

Among other topics, we hope to engender conversation on://

Poetry/Poetics as interdisciplinary exploration (eco-poetics & bio-politics; poetics of the political economy of affect)
Poetry/Poetics as trans- and cross-cultural, including poetry in alternate writing systems
Poetry/Poetics and media technologies, including history of the book
Poetry/Poetics and contemporary events, subjunctive histories
Poetry/Poetics as investigation of social difference and hierarchy, especially as produced, policed, and undone by language
Poetry/Poetics as (in)comprehension of planetary crisis

You may submit an individual *paper (250-word proposal) or a topic for a **seminar-workshop (350-word proposal).
*Seminar topics and paper proposals due: September 1*
*Papers: 10-12-minutes, each panel with 4-5 speakers, to be followed by 30-50 min. discussion

**Seminar-workshops: brief (5-7 page) papers will be circulated in advance of the conference; there will be no formal presentations during the seminars, which will consist of discussion among participants. Seminar participation will be limited to 15, although the coordinator at discretion may allow up to 5 guests who do not contribute papers.

Anyone who submits a paper proposal that is accepted but cannot be accommodated into a panel slot will be invited either to participate in a proposed seminar or to lead a seminar on the topic of the proposed paper.Submitters will be informed of acceptance either as seminar leaders or paper presenters by October 1. A call will then go out for proposals to participate in the seminars: proposals due November 1; submitters will be informed of participation by December 1.